Marvel Releases 'A Look Back,' Teases Josh Brolin's Thanos (Video)

Marvel Studios

The video, created for last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con, summarizes the first six years of Marvel's movies and introduces the bad guy who will plague The Avengers in the future.

To celebrate the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios released a video retrospective of the first two "phases" of its output on Friday, including the first chance many will have to see Josh Brolin's portrayal of cosmic villain Thanos.

The five minute video, titled "Marvel's Phase 1 & 2 — A Look Back," was originally shown at last weekend's Marvel Studios panel at San Diego Comic-Con in Hall H and features scenes from the studio's releases to date — including this weekend's Guardians of the Galaxy — cut together to remind fans of both the characters and the action (Those explosions! Those special effects!) that have won over audiences across the world.

The last minute of the video teases the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether it's in clips from Guardians, using the postcredits sequence from Captain America: The Winter Soldier that introduces Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) or the CGI Ultron head from the 2013 Marvel Studios Comic-Con presentation, before the fast-cut frenzy is replaced by something different.

As the Marvel Studios logo fades out, it's replaced by a slow fade-in for Brolin as Marvel's "mad titan," Thanos, promising that he "will bathe the star ways in your blood" before sitting back on a floating throne with an evil grin.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has recently echoed earlier comments from Avengers director Joss Whedon that Thanos will not be the bad guy behind the scenes of next year's Age of Ultron, telling reporters at a press event that the character is not part of Avengers: Age of Ultron. "I think Thanos does what he wants and shows up where he wants to, and I'm not going to tell him otherwise," he joked before adding, "We're still making Avengers 2, so nothing's definitive one way or the other, actually."

Perhaps this means that Thanos' appearance at the end of this video is less a tease for the next year of Marvel movies but something farther ahead. Avengers 3, anyone…?